Thanks tom, that was very enlightening! In my short time as a 123 celled light owner, I have wondered about the "inexpensive" 123's surefire, and batt stn. I now feel pretty safe ordering up about 20-40 batt stn cells from them after this. I had ALL my SF's do the dead dance, and will not be buying them again. The duracell ultra's have been great but we all know how much more $$ they are, but they have shown really well in my E2d and E1e, stay bright longer, then a slow nice drift to less and less brightness, no shutting down like a light switch ala, SF and
the ones i got at the local cop store. (command's, says "made by kroll" same Company as the tail switch?)
And I don't see any need in testing any more energizer's. Two I used were noticeably less bright in the SF light's right from the start, and ran down quick. I won't tolate that in a batt the same price as a duracell. so till i find a good R123 rechargeables that will work in my incan SF's and ARC, I will go ahead and get some battery station's and when in a bind, pickup duracells.
I kid you not both energizer's bought in two different state's were equally crappy, and I think there AA alki's are not as long running as duracell either.
This thread helped me a lot. VDG
(at the moment,I am leaving my E1e on to finish up the eni in it. I don't even want that bunny batt to reside in one of my light's!)